Boys basketball: Tri-Valley bounces back

Timely 3s help Scotties pull away, snap Generals' win streak

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Jake McLoughlin goes up in the lane against Grant Heileman during Tri-Valley's 58-50 win against visiting Sheridan on Saturday in Dresden. McLoughlin finished with 10 points and 14 rebounds as the Scotties remained tied atop the Muskingum Valley League standings.(Photo: Sam Blackburn/Times Recorder)Buy Photo

The Scotties were coming off their worst loss of the season on Thursday against Zanesville and were without a key senior leader in Greg Nolder.

Additionally, the Generals entered with 10 straight wins and have been arguably the league's most impressive team in the recent weeks.

That all got pushed to the side, however. The Scotties' defense rose to the occasion, holding the visiting Generals to 40 percent shooting in a 58-50 win that kept them atop the Muskingum Valley League standings.

Tri-Valley (13-4, 11-1) stayed tied with John Glenn, which defeated New Lexington on Saturday, in the MVL and pulled two games ahead of the Generals.

Sheridan (14-3, 10-3 MVL) and Tri-Valley have one game each against the Muskies remaining.

"Fourth game in six days, I thought the kids really came out and competed," Tri-Valley coach Todd McLoughlin said. "They understood the severity of the game. They understood that for us to have an opportunity to win the league title, we had to had to win tonight."

Matt King scored 15 points and Dow Cameron 14, while Jake McLoughlin chipped in 10 with a game-high 14 rebounds. King and Cameron were a combined 5-of-7 on 3s.

But defense told the story for the Scotties. They held junior guard Ethan Heller, the MVL's top scorer at 20.2 points per game, to just one field goal and three points in the first three quarters.

Heller put up a career-high 31 points against the Scotties previously.

"The last time we tried to get the ball out of (Heller's) hands early and they had runouts and numbers," Tri-Valley coach Todd McLoughlin said. "We decided this time we were going to sit down and make them earn every shot. I thought our kids did a really good job of that.

"But our main focus, really, was to not let them have second-chance opportunities," he added. "With their physicality, that's where they get a lot of their points, is off offensive rebounds. And our kids battled."

With both teams coming off long weeks, they looked leg-weary early, scoring six points in the game's first five minutes. The Generals misfired on 12 of their first 16 shots, but eight points on the block from 6-7 Grant Heileman still had them ahead 8-7 after one quarter.

It was 23-20 Scotties at halftime, and the game stayed close well into the third, with Sheridan taking a 32-29 lead on Dylan Emmert's 3-pointer from the top of the key with 2:34 left.

Then the Scotties' shooters finally broke loose.

Cameron, King and Keaton Williams hit 3s on consecutive possessions in a 9-0 run to close the quarter, sending the Scotties ahead to stay at 38-32 entering the fourth.

Sheridan was still within 44-38 with 5:20 to go, but crafty Jack Lyall scored twice off lefty hook shots on consecutive possessions to push the Scottie lead to 10 points.

Sheridan never made another charge.

"Once they hit those 3s we started pressing and forcing shots that we really didn't need at that point," Sheridan coach Doug Fisher said. "Once that happened it was hard to get back in it."

Heileman scored a game-high 21 points for Sheridan, which made only 21 of 53 field goals, including 3 of 15 3s.

It now faces a near-impossible task of making up two games in the standings with just three games left. One is a road game against John Glenn next Friday.

There is also a matter of a high seed — maybe even the No. 1 — that is still at stake for next Sunday's Division II sectional tournament draw.

"We got drilled by John Glenn in December and we were 4-2," Fisher said. "I was wondering what kind of team we were going to be. We came back and won 10 in a row. We just need to do the same thing."